We hope that this month’s Banding Bulletin finds you well! I’m sure that most everyone is aware that March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month, and hopefully you are receiving renewed interest from your patients to follow through with their recommended screening colonoscopies! I realize that I’d be “preaching to the choir” by discussing the importance of these exams, but I’d also be remiss by not reminding everyone of the fact that as many as 15-20% of colonoscopies performed for LGI bleeding find hemorrhoids as the culprit!
I wanted to feature one of our Partner ‘s efforts in raising awareness and money for colon cancer research. Drs. Darren Baroni and Edward Kim of Gastroenterology Associates, PC, in Gainesville, VA are raising money for the Colon Cancer Alliance with their “Go Shiny to Save a Hiney” promotion! The “winner”, whichever doctor collects the most money, will have their head shaved! The “ceremony” will be covered on their website (www.doctorgi.com), as will the before and after pictures. I have a little confession to make here — my donation was in the jar of one of Darren and Edward’s partners that has yet to be trained in the use of the CRH O’Regan SystemTM — proving again that CRH Medical supports our trained partners in any way possible! Good luck to Edward, Darren and the rest of the practice in Northern Virginia!
Survey Results and Feedback
Next, I’d like to thank everyone who participated in the survey sent out by CRH last month. The survey was sent to CRH’s trained partners and office staff and we were overwhelmed by the number of responses received! We are flattered by all of your positive feedback, and appreciate all of your support. Our partners told us that the most important advantages of the CRH O’Regan System were:
We also appreciate the kind words regarding the marketing, coding/billing and professional support provided by CRH! The www.crhsystem.com website and the referrals from it were also touted. You had some wonderful ideas for additional services and resources, and we will keep everyone notified as we bring these online. I’m happy to also announce that K.B. was the lucky winner of the new iPad!
Integrating Treatment of Hemorrhoids into a GI Practice by Bob Ganz
Dr. Bob Ganz of Minnesota Gastroenterology in Minneapolis, MN, and the Chair of the ASGE Foundation was kind enough so submit an editorial comment regarding his group’s experience incorporating ano-rectal care into their practice utilizing the CRH O’Regan System:
“Integrating treatment of hemorrhoids into a GI practice is a good decision on multiple levels. Treatment of hemorrhoids expands the practice base, avoids making referrals outside of the practice, greatly increases patient satisfaction, creates a new skill set as well as advances knowledge of ano-rectal disorders for physicians adopting hemorrhoid treatment, and enhances practice revenue. The O’Regan banding system manufactured by CRH Medical Corporation is a safe, simple and very effective method for treating hemorrhoids that can rapidly be incorporated into any size practice from the solo practitioner to large single-specialty GI groups.
Minnesota Gastroenterology PA, (MNGI) is a large, 60 physician, single specialty GI group, that successfully incorporated hemorrhoid banding (utilizing the O’Regan system) into the practice two years ago. Interested members of MNGI were given focused training in the O’Regan system, and in the broader area of the diagnosis and treatment of ano-rectal disorders. Special separate hemorrhoid banding clinics were created to allow the development of greater efficiencies, and templates were created in the MNGI electronic medical record (NextGen), to allow greater consistency and accuracy in the description of clinic visits and treatments rendered. These templates allow physicians in the hemorrhoid treatment group to better standardize care in order to achieve optimal outcomes, to report results in a standardized manner for continuous quality improvement and for the potential publication of data in peer-reviewed journals. MNGI has been able to demonstrate consistent excellent clinical outcomes and continued process improvement. This model appears to be an excellent way to integrate the treatment of hemorrhoids and other ano-rectal disorders into large single specialty GI groups.”
Gut Clubs and Grand Rounds Availability
If you would like us to make a presentation to your organization, Gut Club or Fellowship/Residency Program, please contact me at your earliest convenience. We recognize that most training programs will benefit by utilizing some of the educational resources that are offered by CRH, and are very happy to visit your Program and help by delivering didactic material discussing the care of hemorrhoids, fissures and other ano-rectal pathology as well as to introduce our Technology and techniques to your staff.
Know someone who would be interested in the CRH O’Regan System Partnership Program?
Use the “Forward to a Colleague” function on the right, or send me an email. We are happy to introduce your colleagues to the benefits of the program.
I’d like to close by thanking Dr. Ganz for his input as well as everyone who participated in our recent survey for your overwhelming support! We all stand ready to support you and your practices in any way that we can — please let us know how we can help, have a great month, and we’ll follow up next month with another edition of the Banding Bulletin!
Best regards,
Mitch
Mitchel Guttenplan, MD, FACS
Medical Director
CRH Medical Corporation
T: 800.660.2153 x1022 | C: 770.363.0125 | F: 770.475.9953
